She received a fake $100 bill from a Walmart in Alpine Township, Mich., and the store refused to replace it, according to reports.

Now Ward is out the entire amount, just a month after Ward, her fiance and her 14-year-old son scraped by on $200 in disability plus food assistance, News 8 reported.

The story emerged just days after Julia Garcia of Texas filed suit against Walmart for humiliating her over alleged counterfeit money. Employees tore up two $100 bills because they thought the money was counterfeit, she said. Turns out they were legal tender.

In the Michigan case, Ward used her state assistance Bridge Card in a transaction at Walmart, and received $100 back. But when she tried to use the bill to buy home supplies at the Menards store next door, the cashier detected the bill was counterfeit with a special pen, News 8 reported.

Ward returned to Walmart to exchange the bill for a real one, and the store refused to replace the currency because she had left the building, reports say.

Although the arrival of a Social Security check has eased her budget concerns a bit, she’s still worried: “We have to do without now,” she told the TV station.

So just how do you detect counterfeit dough to avoid Ward’s predicament? According to Secret Service.gov, telltale signs of funny money include when the red and blue fibers appear printed on the paper rather than genuinely embedded in it, and when the portrait is more “lifeless and flat” than the vivid real deal.

Typical Wally World fraud. How about when a bank issues fake $20s? Who’s on the hook then? FDIC? FED? or is it the account holder who draws the fake? The guy on the street shouldn’t have to pay for what is supposed to be illegal dollars. We pay Taxes so these LEOs take care of this crap. Guess they’re too busy beating down protesters or hunting Al CIAda. I have to buy marker pens so I can ID fake money, so should Wally World & the banks. Too big to fail? What happens to that train of thought when you lose your customer base? Get a bailout from Uncle Bammy? Riiiiight.

And we’ve just had the story about the NYC jeweler discovering a large gold bar was mostly tungsten. Expect to hear another round of moaning that these things wouldn’t happen in a truly cashless society. Pesky issues of card fraud, though. Hm, hm … RFID chip in your hand might work.

So you are Wal-Mart manager, and this woman comes to you and says that this counterfeit bill was obtained from your store, please replace it. No other evidence that this is true, just her word. Would you believe her? I’m afraid I wouldn’t. Especially if Wal-Mart has its own equipment that would detect counterfeit bill, which most likely it does have.

Is it possible that these counterfeit gold and cash stories are appearing right now to induce people to embrace the “cashless society”?

If even small quantities of gold can turn out to be tungsten, and even Walmart is dealing in counterfeit currency, what choice do people have but to accept the phantom cyber-digits as a means of exchange?

What would happen if a few more of these stories (true or not) emerge and result in America’s biggest retailer announcing that they will no longer accept cash?